Damarcus
07-04-2009, 10:51 AM
With its 2007 models, Maserati incensed a lot of old-school sports-car fans by doing away with traditional manual transmissions, with their clutch pedals and stick shifts. Maserati went over, along with a herd of other automakers, to what lovers of great Italian sports cars.
These new “automatics” come with complicated labels “sequential manuals” and “automated manuals” and “dual-clutch manuals” and require lengthy explanations. Some of them are herky-jerky, maddening devices the goofy SMG seven-speed in the BMW M5 comes to mind. For the most part, though, today’s automated manuals have advanced to become slick and rapid gear changers, so their ascension seems certain. Even Ferrari has been bailing on clutch pedals and stick shifters.
Automatic, but Still Italian at Heart
This brings us to the third model in Maserati’s GranTurismo lineup the S automatic model. Its gearbox is not of the tech-chic modern variety but instead is a rather unspectacular ZF hydraulic six-speed automatic with a traditional torque converter very similar to what you’d find in a BMW 650i. What it accomplishes are impressively smooth gear changes to go with the company’s impressively smooth grand-tourer image. The ZF shifts the 4.7-liter V-8’s 433 hp with an impressive fluidity that causes not so much as a whiff at the hairline through the gears.
3083
3084
Long paddle shifters in the shadow of the steering wheel send the signals and are amusingly embossed with “DOWN” on the left paddle and “UP” on the right. Zero to 62 mph should come in 4.9 seconds, Maserati says, and top speed is governed at 183 mph. The system does tip its hat to the notion of “manual” operation by refusing to leave a selected gear and go to another without the driver’s permission. (At the same time, an idiot’s accidental shift from second gear to first instead of third will be forgiven. Just ask me.) The ZF is also the transmission in the standard GranTurismo, with its smaller 405-hp, 4.2-liter V-8. The step-up GranTurismo S has the modernist sequential manual gearbox, best known as an F1-style transmission, and no relation to Rocky.
The S automatic can, of course, be driven in fully automatic mode. It comes with unique 20-inch wheels, a few exterior, and a sport mode button that sets off bypass valves to increase the exhaust system’s sound level another very cool Italian feature. On a rainy day over winding roads in Italian farmland, the car was hugely fun to drive. Even at 4000-plus pounds, it cuts up corners like an athlete and refuses body roll even when pushed too hard. The transmission never lurches, even during high-rev downshifts.
These new “automatics” come with complicated labels “sequential manuals” and “automated manuals” and “dual-clutch manuals” and require lengthy explanations. Some of them are herky-jerky, maddening devices the goofy SMG seven-speed in the BMW M5 comes to mind. For the most part, though, today’s automated manuals have advanced to become slick and rapid gear changers, so their ascension seems certain. Even Ferrari has been bailing on clutch pedals and stick shifters.
Automatic, but Still Italian at Heart
This brings us to the third model in Maserati’s GranTurismo lineup the S automatic model. Its gearbox is not of the tech-chic modern variety but instead is a rather unspectacular ZF hydraulic six-speed automatic with a traditional torque converter very similar to what you’d find in a BMW 650i. What it accomplishes are impressively smooth gear changes to go with the company’s impressively smooth grand-tourer image. The ZF shifts the 4.7-liter V-8’s 433 hp with an impressive fluidity that causes not so much as a whiff at the hairline through the gears.
3083
3084
Long paddle shifters in the shadow of the steering wheel send the signals and are amusingly embossed with “DOWN” on the left paddle and “UP” on the right. Zero to 62 mph should come in 4.9 seconds, Maserati says, and top speed is governed at 183 mph. The system does tip its hat to the notion of “manual” operation by refusing to leave a selected gear and go to another without the driver’s permission. (At the same time, an idiot’s accidental shift from second gear to first instead of third will be forgiven. Just ask me.) The ZF is also the transmission in the standard GranTurismo, with its smaller 405-hp, 4.2-liter V-8. The step-up GranTurismo S has the modernist sequential manual gearbox, best known as an F1-style transmission, and no relation to Rocky.
The S automatic can, of course, be driven in fully automatic mode. It comes with unique 20-inch wheels, a few exterior, and a sport mode button that sets off bypass valves to increase the exhaust system’s sound level another very cool Italian feature. On a rainy day over winding roads in Italian farmland, the car was hugely fun to drive. Even at 4000-plus pounds, it cuts up corners like an athlete and refuses body roll even when pushed too hard. The transmission never lurches, even during high-rev downshifts.